"Final project"? you ask. "Are we talking dioramas here?" If only - I for one could use more little plastic figurines in my life. What I really mean, though, is nothing less than what has been called "the purpose of life". Before you balk too much at that, let me distract your attention by a series of amusing metaphors, and then we'll get back to the larger concepts. Stay with me - at least pay attention where I summarize some Plato so you can impress your lit-hum teacher.

First, consider how carefully you have planned some things. The content of the aforementioned dorm room, for instance: Kenny G. poster, stuffed duck collection, electric bagel slicer, etc. You chose these objects not because they are so good that you love them in themselves, but because you want the results that come from their use. Ex: possession of Kenny G. poster is judged a good because it lets other Kenny G. fans know that you are cool; they befriend you and introduce you to their relatives who are record executives; soon your extracurricular activities involve playing the electric guitar for naked girls.

Plato says that a man, given the choice between what he judges a good and what he judges an evil, will choose what he judges to be good every time. The problem here is that in order to judge something a good or an evil, one must complete the statement "this is good/bad for [blank]". You can't just say "good/bad for me", because there are many versions of "me" for which different things are good or bad. Studying on a Friday night is good for "studious me" but bad for "social me"; kissing that attractive personage might be good for "romantic me" but bad for "undefiled by oral herpes me". Etc. The solution is to pick a "me" and stick to it - answer the question "What kind of person do I want to be?" Most of us want to be happy - not so maudlin a concept when Aristotle gets hold of it, if I may interject.

Happiness, as he tells us how to achieve it, is not an irrationally exuberant state but one of satisfaction and contentment: "I am happy with my life". Notice I said Aristotle tells us how to achieve happiness. Though most of us want to be happy, we regard it as more of an accidental state than an attainable goal: "I'll be happy some day/ when this is all over, etc." This is a little like attempting to steal and eat your roommate's ramen noodles by sitting on your side of the room and thinking "Someday the ramen will come to me." If you want ramen, you act in a manner that will achieve your goal - i.e., you take it and then blame your suitemate.

While it is simple to construct a plan that leads to ramen, figuring out how to connect your actions to a "final project" like happiness is rather complicated. We have to think. First we have to decide on a purpose, and then we must judge every potential action as 'good for' or 'not good for' this goal. This first choice is extremely important: it is better, says John Ruskin, to make any choice at all than to drift without one.

Today, suggestions about the purpose of life aren't likely to provoke a dose of hemlock; their audience will adopt the far more effective defense of sarcasm. Sarcasm is useful when it attacks the bad, but it proposes nothing in the place of what it destroys. If it is used as a protection against the discomfort of the good, it leaves nothing. Thus, to be mock the idea of a "purpose for life" implies that life has no final goal and is meaningless. And, while in a meaningless life I would eat a lot more Ben and Jerry's, I like to think - well, I have my philosophy (or at least the outlines of it). You need to come up with your own.

Although, what I mean by "come up with" is "synthesize". You need to read. Even after you become convinced of the goodness of a way of life, remember J. S. Mill. He holds that all we can have are opinions (as opposed to absolute truths) and the only way to know an opinion is a good one is to constantly attack it from opposing viewpoints.

So, my recommendations (which were recommended to me by my betters): The Apology of Socrates, Plato; The Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle; On Christian Doctrine, St. Augustine. Particularly the Apology, which is practically so short as to leave no excuse. The Ethics, while a most valuable thing, is also the work that Sidney said you had to already be half a philosopher to start.